Kaylee Corus
by Kaylintayne
Summary: Master Pounce left Beka Cooper in Bloodhound for what he said was a matter of the stars. This is the matter that he had to leave her so desperately for, a young Puppy named Kaylee Corus, who finds out that her crescent moon shaped birthmark is all but that.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Dog Work in Corus is messy.

I should know this better than anyone.

My name is Kaylee.

I never knew my father, or even my mother. That's why people started calling me Corus. Kaylee Corus. There wasn't a mot on these streets that knew them better than me-hence the name.

I was five when the first person tried to kill me, it was a tall cove, with black eyes. I know because I remember them in my dreams, I see those eyes almost every night.

But I was saved.

I bet the great Rebekah Cooper doesn't even remember me. The small scared mot that had screeched.

But I remember her.

I remember her very well.

_She had eyes like silver pools of moonlight- and brown hair that had been in a braid._

_She hobbled the man trying to kill me, then twirled her baton and tied his wrists with leather cord. _

"_Mot." Rebekah said to me. I looked into her eyes with such wonder-I had been taught that Dogs were bad. But she had just saved my life for no reason. _

"_Are you alright?" I nodded and whipped the blood from my face. "Where are your Ma and Da?" A sinking feeling fell into my stomach. _

"_Beka! Puppy! Where'd you go off to!?" Goodwin called. _

"_Puppy!" Tunstall called._

_Then, I bolted. _

"'_ank ye Guardswoman Beka Cooper." I called after me, then turned a corner._ She didn't catch me. No one ever catches me.

It was a long time past, since that happened to me. Now I have applied for Dog training. Nothing more for me to do.

It was either be chased by the Dogs, or become a Dog.

I am a sturdy mot. Despite my starving childhood I have a wide, thick build, and large feet. I have broad shoulders, and I am short. About 5' 5''. But in that 5' 5'' I am as strong as an ox. I also can run like a horse. I have bright red hair, with yellow eyes, with a half-moon shaped birthmark behind my ears.

I stood in the Training yard near the Guard house, watching Guardswoman Ahuda walk toward us recruits in the field.

"Assemble in the main hall you stupid kids!" she called, I was the first to walk for the door.

I guess I am a brave mot. I just don't care what others think of me.

We all sat down at the benches.

I leaned onto the back cold stone wall, my hair was loose and fell in front of my face. I hadn't made any friends yet in puppy training. I didn't want them.

It was then I heard a boy in front of me talking about Beka Cooper. And I know I shouldn't be so touchy 'bout her, but I am.

"-You mean that stupid Provost's puppy. He sent her to Corus so she would be safer on them streets then these the stupid Mot." I shouldn't have said anything, at that point I controlled my anger.

"Think the Provost will still has feeling for that idiot Dog. She isn't that good, it's just the Provost that keeps her alive."

I think it was then, no, not quiet then.

"She is a bitch" He said. I can't stand the B word. Let alone talking about someone who had saved my life.

That was when I lost it.

That right there.

I jumped to my feet, yanking the kid to his feet and punching him in the face.

He punched at me with flailing arms.

I don't remember what really happened next.

I just remember hearing Ahuda's voice.

"Break it up! This is no way to act like Dogs!" I was yanked from the boy. And thrown to the floor, a crippling hit to my stomach, I was on the floor gasping.

"Mot!" Ahuda screamed, her face red with anger. "You started this fight! What is this about?!" I looked up at Ahuda, my yellow eyes ashamed.

"I," I was catching my breath.

"For no reason stupid mot!" the boy cried, struggling from the Dogs that hold him to kick me in the stomach. I lurched back and the pain, but fought past it and stood.

I swung my fist at him and punched him again in the face. He fell down, giving the Dogs time to grab him again, also a time for the Dogs to grab me. I struggled, but let them over power me.

"She is a Crazy!" the boy screamed. "She ought to be locked up with 'em cage Dogs!"

"Silence boy!" Ahuda boomed. I flinched at her harshness. "I asked the young mot what this was about, not you." Ahuda's cold stare rested on me. I blinked my eyes, spitting the blood from my mouth and looking at the floor.

"He was insulting Guardswoman Cooper sir. Calling her all types of unseemly names." I said, my eyes finally leaving the floor. What met my eyes were not those of the cold hard Ahuda. But some kind of strange soft person inside her.

"What is you names?" Ahuda asked, masking the look in her eyes.

"Collin Hunt Guardswoman," the boy said.

"Kaylee Guardswoman." I said after him, my eyes drifting to his.

"Kaylee what?" Ahuda asked. I formed another seething anger just looking at the filth.

"Kaylee Corus Guardswoman." I said.

"What kind of name is that you urchin?" Collin spat. I lunged at him, kept back by the Dogs.

"Kaylee Corus. Pray I don't have to explain this to you again. No fights with the other puppies. No matter what they say."

"But Guardswoman-" I tried.

"And you Collin, if I hear you talkin' bad about any dog here I will have your hid for it." Collin's face went ashen and he nodded.

The dogs let us go, and I sat back down, this time in the middle of the crowd. A seat in every direction was empty. A ring of empty seats. I might be in the crowd. But I was still alone.

It was then all the dogs came in, each a two set of dogs.

Each partners getting a puppy.

A puppy like me.

Well, no puppy was like me.

Slowly each name was called to partner.

Then my name was called.

I stood. Not even hearing my partner's names. And walked to the front.

It was two guardsmen that came up to me.

We walked out into the training field together. It was our night watch, with the sun setting on the city.

So I studied them in the fading light.

One, was tall, with black hair that fell around his shoulders in waves, he had black eyes to go with his hair, and a tanned skin, not local.

The other was also tall, but not quite as tall as the first, with tight red curls that clung to his head. He was thin, less muscly then the first. With blue eyes and a freckled face.

"So we _get_ a mot." The curly haired dog complained.

"Hey come on Meric, get off it." Said the taller one to his guard companion. I stared at them not letting my hands leave my sides.

"Please pay him no mind love," the taller one said, sticking out his had in greeting. "My name here is Marcus, this is Meric, sorry, didn't catch your name-?"

"Kaylee." I replied smoothing the hem of my tunic, the white puppy trim I was proud of. It meant I got wear it.

Marcus's grip was hard, a strong grip. Meric on the other hand brushed my hand off like he would stale candy.

"Come on Meric, this is the girl that started that fight before we were chosen."

"Was that you?" Meric said, his face brightening up.

"Yes sir." I said, meeting his blue eyes.

"Really? Why?" I felt embarrassment redden my ears.

"Well, I." I stammered, we were off walking to our patrol for the night walk now. My hands were numb with excitement. Then I swallowed, putting my chin high. "He insulted my Guardswoman Beka Cooper." I said quickly, the catch in my throat gone now.

A laugh erupted from both of their mouths. I felt my embarrassment heated more.

"Good job mot!" Marcus laughed between breaths. "Told you she would be perfect for us Meric." Meric shrugged his shoulders and we walked through the street, his eyes darting for foists and pickpockets. I was starting to get how they worked, their ways as ground into them as any Dog.

I just hoped I could fit in as their puppy. For their sake, I hope they could handle my hot temper.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Our watch started out alright.

Though Meric and Marcus ask too many questions for my taste.

"So Any family?" Meric asked.

"No." I said.

"No one?"

"No."

"Not even a grandma, or distant relative?" Marcus asked. I rolled me eyes.

"No last name-no family. I was just a young mot when I was dumped in the streets, t' young to remember anything."

"And how did you get this?" Marcus and pulled my brown hair away from my neck and brushed his fingers lightly against my crescent moon shaped birthmark. I slapped his hand away from me harder then I meant. Then looked forward- both Marco and Marcus seemed to be the same age- barely old enough to be proper full fledged dogs, why were they paired together?

Anyway, it was then that I saw the pickpocket, I am sure that Marcus and Meric saw her too, so I looked at Meric.

"Fetch puppy." He said, pointing to the younger teenage boy.

I don't remember what happened after that. Besides catching the rat by the shirt, and then-a burning sensation in my neck. Something that burned like a hot iron right below my ear.

I fell over. My eyes swirling with purple and pink.

Something was wrong. Something was going on.

I don't remember waking up. I just remember the wet. The wet liquid of the harbor.

Was I really in the harbor? A cold chill wrenched up my back. I tried to open my eyes, to stand, to swim-to do _something_.

I forced my eyes open. Sunlight-blinding light.

Next time I opened my eyes it was dark-terrifyingly dark.

I got a mouth full of water-but for some reason it didn't bother me.

Then, next I felt something beneath me besides water. It was stones. A ground.

I jerked to sitting, gasping for air as I did. I coughed the water from me lungs.

Where was I? Who was I?

I was Kaylee Corus.

I was a Puppy.

I was a Dog.

My head spun, and I checked myself for my things. My money purse was gone-though it had only had two coppers in it. My baton was also gone, and my shoes.

I pulled myself away from the water's edge, trying to see my surroundings.

It was dark, that much I could tell, by the sound of where I was I was under a bridge-or in a tunnel.

I whimpered, I think, as a pain seared up the left side of my neck.

Where my birthmark was, that's where it hurt-it burned.

Slowly I crawled back to the water and scooped some of it out, and splashed it on the wound.

It sizzled as it touched me, making it feel numb.

It was by then I could see torches, out at the sea. Probably ships, ducking in and out of the horizon.

I realized it was me bobbing, and the lights stood still. I collapsed onto the stone ground. Waiting, wanting this to be one of my terrible nightmares

I think I had passed out that time. But maybe not. But when I finally came too the sun was setting.

I had been asleep all night and day-yah, I fainted.

Pulling my body up I forced myself to walk to the edge of the tunnel. It was knee high water out until the edge, then it dropped off slowly so that ships could go close to it.

I realized, looking off into the water, that it the lights I had seen before was of Corus. Not of ships.

I had been gone from Corus who knows how long-what had happened?

How would I explain to them-even better, how did I?

I clenched my fists at the stiffness of my body, and thanked the goddess that it had been a warm hot week, with warm hot nights so I had not caught hypothermia.

I sloshed through the water to the edge of the tunnel, and climbed the rock incline to the top of the hill.

Then started along the coastline to Corus.

When the stars had shown me there sparkling forms in the night I had reached the ports of Corus. Many of the workers around me, or just didn't notice me.

That was how I had always been.

I lacked the will to walk, but still walked, I staggering into Janesstreet kennel I remember no more.


	3. Chapter 3

I was aware of being in a bed.

I opened my eyes.

I was alone.

I opened my eyes again, and I saw Meric and Marcus there.

And a cat.

A black cat.

I pulled my hands to my head, and the bandage on my neck.

Meric was watching me, his eyes wide.

"_Leave her be Dogs_." Said the cat. He stood and walked up to me, rubbing around my side and laying down.

"Why don't you go back to the stars where you belong in the stars master Pounce." It was more of a statement then a question, Marcus was the one who said it.

The cat looked at Marcus and hissed.

"_Mind your own business Marcus_." Pounce said. "_This __is__ a matter of the stars._" I looked at the purple eyed cat.

"The healers couldn't help you love." Marcus said, looking at me. My eyes looked at him. "They said that their magic wasn't able to touch you." I frowned, not able to understand.

"_It is alright Kaylee_." Pounce said, catching my attention with his sparkling eyes. "_Healers can't touch you because of your birthmark_."

"What do you mean?" I asked. Pounce licked his paws and started grooming himself.

"_In time little kitten. In time_." I looked at Marcus, who wasn't seeming to hear Pounce's words.

"Kaylee," Marcus said, looking me up and down. "We thought you were dead." I looked at him.

"What happened to you?" Meric asked. I was slowly thinking of what happened.

"I, I don't remember." I closed my eyes and clutched the side of my neck. "We start'd watch," I said. "And I saw t'at cove pocket pickin'." My voice was slurring into cesspool talk. "Th'ts all I 'member." Marcus was stunned. His eyes searching mine.

"You don't remember?" My eyes sank downwards. I shook my head.

Meric leaned forward.

" My eyes sank downwards. I shook my head.

Meric leaned forward.

"You were killed Kaylee. We saw it with our own eyes." I looked at him, so stunned I could barely breath.

"What?" Meric lost his head and stood, stalking from the bed, his emotions overwhelming him.

Marcus grabbed my hand and squeezed it.

"Kaylee," I looked at him, then at pounce. "You have been dead for three days." My eyes darted to Pounce.

"How was I dead?" I asked him. Pounce looked at Marcus.

"_Explain to her Dog_." That time Marcus heard him. He looked me in the eyes and started the story.

"We were in the street, when that pickpocket was there. You grabbed him and a rusher came up behind you, after five had cornered me and Meric. I saw a dagger thrust into your chest, and you dropped. The rushers dragged you to the gutters and dumped you in, where you flowed out to the sea." I subconsciously put a hand to my chest. Then looked down at my chest, I untied the neck line's string and pulled it down slightly. A fresh pink scare was rosy red right where my heart beat. My fingers traced the scare. Then looked up at him.

"I don't understand." I said plainly. Pounce looked at me with his purple eyes.

"_Kaylee, this has happened before_." I grabbed my side, the dark scare that had haunted me for most of my life.

"What do you mean master Pounce?" Marcus asked. I looked at Marcus, my eyes close to tears.

Then, I pulled up my shirt on the right side. There, light against my side was my childhood scare. It was large, and star shaped, with what had been ripped flesh staring out from the center.

"I was three." I said, seeing the wonder in his face. "I, I don't really remember what happened. Besides that it hurt. And that. And the-" My words froze in my throat. It had been the day that Beka Cooper had saved me, I had run, and I had fallen down after escaping her. Then. After the pain and the agony, it stopped. I had awoke three days later.

"I thought it was the tricksters miracle. Or that it had not been as bad as I first thought." Slowly I pulled the shirt back to cover my side. A cold chill in the air.

"_And_." Pounce said. I looked down.

"And, and." The pain in my words told Pounce I would not continue. He looked at Marcus and blinked, then told him in my place.

"_She was only a babe, her parent's killed her and dumped her in the gutter. She has a cut on her throat. Where it was done_." It was then I suppose that Marcus noticed the thin scare that traced my jawbone.

"How did she survive?" Marcus asked Pounce.

"_It is a matter of the stars Marcus. Do not dawdle in it_." Marcus stared at me, his eyes wide.

"My puppy is my matter, not the stars business." Pounce stood, walked over me and stood as big as he could.

"_Leave it Dog_." Pounce hissed.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Marcus watched as pounce curled up on my stomach and fell asleep.

He wished me well and told me he'd pray to the goddess for me.

"I would rather keep your coppers." I murmured as he left. I didn't find anymore sleep, after that.

But a healer came and changed the bandage on my neck, she was a gentle healer, but seemed to be afraid of me.

Pounce was curled up at the edge of the bed by then.

"Pounce. What did you mean? This is a matter of the stars?" I asked him, when I knew that the healer was out of earshot. Pounce rolled over and looked at me up side down.

"_What it sounds like_." Pounce said. "_A matter of the stars_."

"I am a matter of the stars?" I asked.

"_Yes_." Was all he said, before jumping down from the bed and trotting out of sight.

I watched his tail like a flag leave. Then felt the scar on my side through the shirt.

I curled onto me side to think.

How was I a matter of the stars? I was an urchin from the cesspool. I was a child that no one had wanted. I was a puppy. I had taken the tests, I had finished what was given to me.

I had almost died.

But I was not a matter of the stars-was I?

Slowly I pulled my knees close to my chest, and wrapped my arms around it. Slowly, I was turning my life over in my head.

I had evaded the child snatchers when I was a girl. I had survived the attack that Beka had saved me from. My parents had tried to kill me. Something wasn't adding up. Something was here that I didn't see.

By the end of the day they released me, Marcus offered to walk me home, but I smiled and told him no thank you.

Meric was nowhere to be seen, I guessed he was in a bar somewhere getting drunk.

I watched Marcus walk of down the street to go to his home.

I stood there, in a cotton hospital gown and a bundle of clothes in my arms. My feet were bare. My shoes.

"Marcus." I called after him. Marcus stopped, turning to look at me.

I walked up to him.

"I can't be a Dog no longer." I mumbled.

"What?" Marcus sparked, stunned. I looked down at my bare feet. "Why Kaylee?" I licked my lips and looked up at him.

"I ain't got any shoes." I said. "Those were my only pair." Marcus's eyes softened.

"You would quite the Dogs for a pair of shoes?"

"For a lack there of." I said slowly. He looked at my bare feet.

"You have no other pair of shoes?" my face deepened a scarlet.

"These were 'da first pair of shoes 've had." I said, my voice betraying my cesspool talk. Marcus's dark eyes turned soft. "I don't have no coppers to replace 'em." I said, looked down at the stone street.

Marcus's eyes softened.

"Come on Puppy. Hows about you come to my place fore dinner?" I looked up at him, my yellow eyes shinning a dull color.

"I wont take no pity food." I said, raising my chin stubbornly.

"Will you take food from your partner Dog?" he asked. I smiled slightly-I was hungry.

"A'lright." I said.

"And stop all that cistern talk." Marcus said, slinking his arm over my shoulder. "You are much too pretty a mot to be speakin' like garbage." I smiled up at him. We walked down the road until we reached his house.

I knew it was his house because of the little ones, each with raven black hair like his.

"Dadda Dadda!" a little girl jumped at him, he grabbed her and spun her about.

"Olivie, go get the rest of my little rats wont you?" Olivie jumped from her father's arms and ran into the house.

A woman came from out back and almost ran into the two of us.

"Oh Marcus!" she cried, stepping back and sparing the eggs from falling from her arms.

Marcus leaned over her round belly and kissed her on the cheek.

"Prim, we have a guest for dinner." He said, rubbing his wife's stomach. "How is the two littlest?" he asked, looking at her tummy.

"Quite well today, they both kicked me twice. Giving me awful trouble when I was needle working today." He smiled, brushing the red hair from his wife's green eyes. "And who is this?" she said, as he leaned into kiss her.

"My companion is all love," he said, trying again to plant a kiss on her cheek. His wife pushed him aside.

"No lovin' til the guest is fed, Marcus." She stretched out his name in a mocking manner. He sighed and grabbed the basket of eggs from his wife.

"Fine be it. Wouldn't be me that would argue with the woman of the house." We were then barraged with children. I counted four in all- I think. Maybe it was five. They managed to grab my neck and swing onto my back, wrapping their arms around me, and one of the smaller wrapped themselves around my leg. I was use to the children of the cistern, they didn't do this as lovingly as these children were.

"Aaarrrgghhh! Be gone!" Cried Marcus's wife, whom I think name was Meg. Meg shooed her children away from me, and they ran into the house screeching and running.

Marcus had succeeded of planting a kiss on his wife's cheek, and continued to kiss her on the lips. She pushed him away and lead us into the house.

It was a large house, every inch used by the family in it.

The oldest of the children were five, and then they went down. I knew that they were all of Marcus and Meg's kids, each with green eyes or black, and each with black hair.

They piled around the table in eager anticipation their food. I sat down next to the oldest of the children, a girl with hazel eyes, and black hair that went down to her waste. She watched me with her eyes and studied me up and down.

"Dadda." She said looking at her father and blinked. "She looked like she has a moon on her neck." I reddened and covered it with the palm of my hand. "Why do you have a moon on your neck?" I smiled at the girl, she wouldn't understand.

"I was born with it." I said. The little girl turned back to the table.

"Dadda, she was born with it." She informed her father. He smiled as he juggled to children into their seats.

Meg came out of the kitchen and put food on the table. Then they all started to eat. I watched them all eat. Something, this was the first I had seen it.

Such a love around them it buzzed the room. I sat and watched it for a long time, marveling in its beauty.

Marcus caught my eyes and gave a small smile. I started to eat. Disturbed that I had lived my whole life without such love.

After the meal was finished Meg put the kids to bed and Marcus and I came into the den, where he opened a bottle of mead and flopped onto the couch. I sat in the chair across from it, while Meg eased into the couch with her husband.

"Meg, I was wondering if you had some shoes that would fit Kaylee here." Meg looked down at my feet and laughed.

"As soon as I sat husband." She said, standing with a grunt. She walked into the other room and produced a pair of leather shoes.

"Oh I couldn't." I said, seeing how nice they were.

"No, Kaylee, don't be daft. My wife is a peddler. She makes shoes in her spare time." I looked at Meg and smiled.

"Thank you." I said. "I promise I will pay you back."

"Pay me back by not letting my husband die on duty alright?" she said with a grin. I smiled back, knowing I would lay my life down for him-the first person I had ever thought that way about.


End file.
